Physical security of areas and buildings, including, but not limited to, offices, homes, warehouses, government buildings, public use buildings, transportation depots, airports, storage lots, etc., whether occupied or unoccupied, has become an important aspect of everyday life. Monitoring systems exist to ensure the security of these areas and/or structures and typically use technology to capture information from a variety of sensors, e.g., video, audio, infrared, proximity sensors, motion sensors, and/or ingress/egress sensors, or some combination of these and other sensor inputs. However, the huge amount of data received from even one sensor type and typically stored in archival storage, either onsite or offsite, make using these systems cumbersome and ineffective. Typically, offsite data archiving is useful for storing large amounts of data, but retrieving that data is difficult, time-consuming, and cannot be performed in a manner that allows a portion of the data to be reviewed in a timely manner at the request of a user. Onsite storage, on the other hand, is typically easier and quicker to access, but is generally limited in the amount of data it can handle.
Current state of the art systems do not allow for a determination or selection of where security system sensor data is to be stored thereby making the data hard to recover and review in a timely manner when requested by a user. Furthermore, current systems generally treat all of the sensor data as being the same, which exacerbates the problem of timely retrieval. Additionally, current state of the art systems do not allow for different management schemes for the data streams, e.g., viewing and recording, depending on whether the request and/or instructions came from a local user/inside user or a mobile/outside user.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods for processing security sensor data that enhances the ability of a user to quickly and efficiently review selected portions of the data streams.